De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Over the years I have noticed an evolution in the circumstances of our presbyterate which, whether we have heeded it or not, has undoubtedly wrought existential changes in the life of your average priest. Growing up, there were usually  two priests, often three, in a parish. Now priests are largely solitary. As a priest friend of mine remarked a few years ago, this means that it is easy for the good ones to work themselves to death with no one to tell them to take a day off, it's similarly easy for others to descend into darkness, error, alcoholism, etc. A priest is a father and as such, for most of us who take our faith seriously, he commands a certain degree of paternal respect. He is someone who you go to for advice, for wisdom, for succour when things are so bad you can't cope anymore.  But who does he go to? Do you know your priest well enough to be able to say who his friends are? That he has a hot meal? That his heating works? I am blessed to have a family, my home life...

This weekend in my own diocese of Brentwood we saw the launch of a new initiative: Caritas Brentwood launches! Have a look at https://t.co/H6sgRsmiJN to discover amazing people doing stunning work throughout @BrentwoodRC . Catholic Social Teaching in action. Lives transformed. — Fr Dominic Howarth (@Father_Dominic) November 17, 2018 I actually read the bidding prayers at Mass which prayed for the success of this initiative and when I got home, I thought I would have a look. I was flabbergasted (frankly) to find this page promoting the organisation Quest which Cardinal Hume banned from the Catholic Directory of the Church in England and Wales because he concluded it was not a Catholic organisation as it stated that its objectives were to change Church teaching. Quest  have a long history of lobbying and dissent which you can get a sense for at Protect the Pope . Quest openly and publicly support same-sex marriage in direct contradiction to Church teaching. Despite ...

Last Wednesday marked the culmination of many weeks work for me as Bishop Alan Williams sm ( read more about him here ),  visited my Parish for the first time and Confirmed 34 in a beautiful liturgy. We have prepared the Confirmandi with a series of monthly sessions based around the Ascension Press programme Chosen , which mixes vibrant short video presentations with discussion and challenging questions. We tried to ground the teaching we did in solid Catholic principles which expose how living a Catholic life has practical and real implications for each of us every day. We built up the underpinning principles and then showed how these truths effect the decisions we face every day. We also included liturgy in every session, exposing the blessed Sacrament and praying together each week. We asked the candidates to write a short essay on what they had learned and why they wanted to be Confirmed and prepared them for the Sacrament on the final session with the Sacrament of Reconcil...

Our Bishop, the Right Reverend Alan Williams, has been slowly discerning the best way to re-organise and govern certain areas of Diocesan life and administration.  Some people have expressed concern over the amount of time this has taken, but as the Managing Director of a not inconsiderable organisation myself, it seems very sensible to me that anyone coming into such an important role would need to take a great deal of time to discern the issues facing the Diocese and get to know the people within the organisation. Inevitably, this process of discernment has resulted in some changes at the Diocesan Offices in Brentwood including a rationalisation of staffing. This caused some disquiet, after many years of stagnation, some of the people there had been around for a long while. Some unscrupulous journalists tried to portray this in Machiavellian tones in the dreadful Tablet . But the reality was nothing more than what one might logically expect for any new pair of hands ...

This is the Pastoral Letter from Brentwood's Bishop Alan Williams which was read out on Sunday: We have now begun the great journey of Lent. All of us, whether as catechumens preparing to enter the Church, or as experienced Catholic Christians, are called to go forward towards the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. Lent is a grace-filled time, a sacred time; a time for conversion and a time for change. In today’s Gospel on this first Sunday of Lent we hear that Jesus went into the wilderness for forty days where he struggled with temptation and the extremes of the desert. This example of Jesus had a profound effect on the early Church when many Christians followed Jesus into the desert and it was in the desert that the first flowerings of Christian monasticism were found. These brothers and sisters consecrated themselves to God and embraced the struggle alongside Christ. In the desert, “human life is precarious, indeed almost impossible… the only living things are thorns...

Since the news of his appointment,  the days have been largely full of prayers of thanksgiving and information sharing regarding our new bishop, Alan Williams. Bishop-elect Willams viewing his Cathedral. I could not help but observe that there seemed to be a lot of non-plussed clergy out there to start off with. Alan who? No one had heard of him! The appointment was described as "a surprise", "a shock". But for those who know Walsingham, England's Nazareth, there was no shock, for they knew Fr. Alan very well. In 1893, Pope Leo XIII made a pronouncement. Some might even call it a prophesy, when he asked the English Bishops to consecrate their country to Mary, the Mother of God, recalling the ancient title the land enjoyed of being “Our Lady’s Dowry”. When England returns to Walsingham, Our Lady will return to England. This claim, to be Our Lady’s Dower, or Dowry—confirmed by Pope Leo XIII in 1893—is an extraordinary one, shared by no other land. Ne...

Fathers forgive me, for I am about to blog in anger. Well, frustration anyway. How excruciatingly embarrassing for poor Bishop Thomas, at the precipice of a well earned retirement, Fr. Michael Butler, Chairman of Brentwood Diocese Liturgy Commission just will not shut up! On Sunday last, he appeared on BBC Essex , allying himself with Southend Deanery's ACTA leader Tony Castle, in his attack on the New Translation of the Roman Missal. You can listen again to the whole programme here  for another six days. If you're not aware of the story so far, Fr. Butler penned a letter to The Tablet stating that it is legitimate for priests to ditch the new translation, and use the previous missal. Fr Butler’s public rejection of the authority of the Holy See and the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales is in response to The Tablet’s report that ACTA have written to the Bishops’ Conference requesting that they drop the new translation. This was picked up by Protect The Pop...

Prayer for a New Bishop Father, You have given us your Son, Jesus Christ, to teach, sanctify and govern Your people. You also gave us the gift of Your Holy Spirit so that we may forever remain one in Your name. We thank You for our past bishops who have served the Diocese of Brentwood. Father, we ask that You look with favor upon those in the Church, who will prayerfully select our new bishop. Give them a Spirit of wisdom and counsel that they may discern Your will. We ask in the name of your Son, that You bless our future bishop. Provide him with the gifts he will need to carry on the ministry of Jesus Christ in our Diocese. Grant him the heart of Your Son, the heart of the Good Shepherd. Bestow upon him the zeal of St Paul in preaching the Gospel; the humility of St. John Vianney in ministering the sacraments; the compassion of St Vincent de Paul in serving those most in need; and the wisdom of St Augustine in teaching the doctrine of the church. We ask this through the interces...

Brentwood Diocese, purportedly, has the best Youth Service in the Country. This is more than just conjecture, it is the opinion of many people involved with Youth Work I have spoken to over the years, and was certainly affirmed by all who attended Sunday's  wonderful Mass of Thanksgiving at Brentwood Cathedral. Brentwood Cathedral Brentwood Youth Service has been a success due to the involvement of many characters over the years, but perhaps it would be reasonable to say none more so than Sarah Barber and her husband James, here pictured together in Lourdes at a joint Brentwood/Liverpool pilgrimage in 1987. Sarah & James Barber a long time ago! Sarah has been Diocesan Youth Director for twelve years and has made a huge contribution to the spiritual life of young people in our diocese over that time. She has now secured a position with CAFOD, which is very exciting. I'm sure she will continue to make a huge contribution to the life of the Church in her new...